


A Musician's Touch

by SteamyTaiZhen



Category: Carole & Tuesday (Anime)
Genre: Accidental Cuddling, F/F, Kissing, Resolved Sexual Tension, Sexual Harassment, Touchy-Feely
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-01
Updated: 2020-05-01
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:54:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23946505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SteamyTaiZhen/pseuds/SteamyTaiZhen
Summary: Carole and Tuesday hold hands, and the two end up making remarks and observations on how the state of their hands reflect who they are as musicians.
Relationships: Tuesday Simmons & Carole Stanley, Tuesday Simmons/Carole Stanley
Comments: 8
Kudos: 86





	A Musician's Touch

**Author's Note:**

> I've had this idea for a fic since the beginning of the show. I'm pretty detailed about this hand stuff since I relate to Tuesday so much. I dress like her, left home at around her age, and I used to be a guitarist in my old band, so I know the struggle of beginning to play.

It was late at night and the air was chilling. The dark sidewalk was beamed upon by distanced yellow streetlights as the two girls walked home to their space above the Chinese herbs shop.  
  
Carole and Tuesday just had another show at the Mars Lounge. It was right after their disqualification on Mars' Brightest, but they returned to their first stage after a pretty satisfying outcome. The place was more packed than usual and they got more applause amidst the clout they received during the show. Gus had gone off to chat with some potential contract signings, because for some reason, he wasn't too confident about the offer the show was making them, so he was scouting for backups.   
  
  
" If you're going to be practicing tomorrow first thing in the morning, you might as well let me carry your stuff back, I probably won't even sleep tonight, so you can count on me being there early." Is what Gus told them before sending the three teens out of the venue.  
  
Roddy had to leave to hurry to an even later night show working with Ertegun and was waiting for his ride. He noticed Tuesday shivering a bit, since she only wore a short sleeved blouse.  
  
  
" You're both wearing the same outfit you did last time... At least Carole brought her sweater... Take my jacket, Tuesday." Roddy immediately took his jacket off, resting it upon her shoulders.  
  
" What about you, Roddy?" Tuesday asked, concerned that he was wearing nothing but a tight, plain white t-shirt.  
  
" I won't be spending much time outside. Besides, I'll be sleeping at Ertegun's, so I won't even need to travel to the other side of town to get home."  
  
A car pulled up in front of them. Roddy offered them a ride home, but both girls insisted on not doing so since he was there to support them by doing volunteer work for them, making him late for work. Besides, Carole's place was in walking distance.  
  
  
" You wouldn't want to piss off Ertegun. Especially if it's going to be our fault again." Carole reasoned as Roddy shook his head.  
  
" Although I don't want to push it on purpose, he seems incapable of staying mad at me. He's really nice when we're alone, actually." Roddy might have spoken highly of him, but Carole and Tuesday just couldn't picture such a possibility.  
  
" It's hard to imagine..." Tuesday mumbled, almost in fear. Which was strange, because she was the one who almost set his living room on fire.  
  
Roddy greeted them goodnight in hopes that the girls would get home safe, kind of regretting on not insisting they take a ride.  
  
Carole had let down her hair to let it sit around her neck for warmth since she didn't have anything else.  
  
As the two walked on, heels audibly hitting the pavement, they passed by some men who started whistling at the girls, not knowing who they were.  
  
  
" Hey, sexy ladies, why don't you come over here for some fun tonight?!"  
They shouted many vulgar things of the sort, that being the most polite amongst other obscenities.   
  
Carole grabbed Tuesday's hand, turned her head and barked back at them:  
" Shut it, you creeps! You're a public nuisance!"  
She could see them getting up and walking menacingly towards them.   
  
Luckily, Tuesday's Gibson was safely with Gus, and not on their hands, so they could run as fast as they wanted to with no baggage to hold them back.  
  
After turning a couple corners, running through a couple of sketchy alleyways, the catcallers were off their trail and the girls arrived home, breathing heavily, and standing in the stairway to the attic because they couldn't bear to go up a large flight of stairs at the moment.  
  
" Man, we need to work out!" Carole cried out, as she managed to catch her breath first.  
" Y-yeah..." Tuesday stuttered.  
  
" Ah... Carole?"  
  
Carole looked over to Tuesday, whose hand she was still holding, now, both were drenched in sweat.  
  
" Sorry 'bout that, Tues."  
She apologized earnestly. As both girls rubbed the sweat off their hands, Carole felt the intent stare of her companion trailing from her head, scanning downwards.  
  
" C-Carole..." Tuesday stuttered quietly.  
  
She grabbed her hand, fiddling with her fingers, as Carole's palm laid in her left hand, she used her right hand to take one finger at a time, starting with her finger, caressing her fingertips delicately.  
  
" Tuesday, no offense, but... What the heck are you doing?" Carole kind of felt the urge to take her hand away, but strangely, felt moreso comforted by her tender touches and allowed her to continue.  
  
  
" Checking your hands."  
  
" What for?"  
  
" They're really soft. And your fingers are pretty long."  
  
She giggled just slightly before sighing.  
  
" I wish my hands could be like yours..."  
  
Carole suddenly took notice of the hardness of Tuesday's palm, contrary to how cute and girlish she was on the outside, she had very rough hands.  
  
" Your fingers are perfect for playing the piano... For when you hit the very gentle notes and all."  
  
Carole didn't look the type to have elegantly long fingers with beautifully soft skin. She was the tomboyish type who always got into fights (and usually won them). Carole was a pretty tough girl, but you wouldn't think that just by looking at her hands.  
  
  
" How do you get your hands like this, Carole?"  
  
She paused for a moment to think.  
  
  
" I guess I use a lot of moisturizer out of habit."  
  
" Out of habit?"  
  
" Yeah, a lot of part time jobs I had was in food service, so, they made you constantly wash your hands at those things. Plus, when I constantly had to do dishes, the frequent exposure to water sort of just completely pulled the water out of my skin, so I ended up with uncomfortably dry hands. They got straight up sandpaper-y," she paused to shiver at the memory of such a gross feeling, "...It was unbearable, really! When I'd close my fists, my fingertips felt gross and scratchy against my palm. Rubbing my hands, clapping, touching the skin on my hands in general became very unpleasant. I ended up getting obsessed with moisturizing my hands from then on."  
  
" I... I see..." Tuesday seemed a little sad, and Carole couldn't understand what for. It seemed like there was a bit of envy in her avoiding gaze and a little bit of something else.  
  
  
" If you want, Tues, you can use the hand cream that I keep in the bathroom."  
  
" Oh... I couldn't!"  
  
" It's okay, I don't mind!"  
  
" That's... Not what I meant, Carole. I mean, I _can't_."  
  
This was met by a look of confusion from her accompanist, who tilted her head in a curious manner.  
  
" _Can't_?" She repeated, questioning her emphasis.  
  
" Yeah, that's right... I... My hands are all rough for a reason."  
  
This time, Carole took Tuesday's left hand in hers and started touching each of her fingertips.  
  
" They're all tough and dry... It's actually kind of badass..." She noticed that the left fingers didn't look curved, but when she pressed on them, she felt a slight indenture.  
  
" Guitarist fingers."  
  
" That's right..." Tuesday replied in a bittersweet tone, while she was pleased her friend could guess it, she still felt a tad bit of insecurity concerning the state of her hands.  
  
" Guitarists need to build up calluses to play with ease. Beginners hurt themselves after just a few minutes of continuous playing. It hurts, and some people even get blisters..."  
  
Carole was impressed and muttered something about guitarists being really cool for that dedication.  
  
"...actually... When I was a beginner, I practiced until my fingers bled."  
  
" Ahahah... Figures... You're a pretty intense person, Tuesday, a lot of people wouldn't guess that about you if they judged you based on your appearance."  
  
" H-hey! How awful!" They both laughed at the remark. While it did sting a bit, it was true, and a compliment in its own way.  
  
" Actually, I hated my calluses so much that I bought a skin exfoliating scrub specifically made for hands."  
  
" Did it work?"  
  
Tuesday nodded, almost sobbing.  
  
" Huh? What's wrong?"  
  
" It made my fingertips softer than a baby's skin! It was nice at first, but when I started playing my Hummingbird again... It hurt like crazy!"  
  
  
Tuesday sighed and slipped her hands out of Carole's, taking a seat on the staircase, immediately joined by her.  
  
  
" So, you had to start from scratch."  
  
" It was even more hellish and painful than the first time! But this time, I knew that I needed to toughen my skin for a reason. It's a guitarist's protective barrier. You literally acquire thicker skin! But just thinking about how much my fingers hurt the second time makes me want to cry...!" Tuesday genuinely had tears forming in her big blue marbles she had for eyes, Carole patted her on the back and chuckled at her, trying to lighten up the mood.  
  
" Don't be so down about it! It's kind of your bragging rights, or like battle scars. To show you've really put in the work to get to where you are... And you even did it twice! You really went to hell and back to get to your skill level!" Tuesday looked at Carole and saw nothing but true admiration in her tone and in her expression.   
_  
To hell and back, huh?_ Tuesday thought to herself. It was a strange way to put it, but what moreso came to mind was how accurately that description fit Carole's rescue mission to save her from her mother's clutches.  
  
Carole has really become her everything over the past months. Although a teenager, like herself, Carole really grounded Tuesday in the reality that laid beyond her bedroom back in that lonely mansion in Herschell and showed her how it was really like to be an adult, working for your money and struggling to pay bills all while keeping yourself sane with your hobbies.   
  
No matter what kind of day Carole was having, whether she had been berated or belittled by a stranger, or got fired from a part time job, or all of the above, she always had a beautiful smile across her face that lifted Tuesday's spirits.  
  
" Sometimes... I wanted to give up. Right before I ran away, I considered going back to school... Getting rid of my calluses again..." She leaned in closer to Carole, resting her head on her right shoulder, nuzzling up to her neck, "...but I knew that I just had to try. I wanted to go out and do something crazy to see if I could make more out of my life than what my mother wanted... And I had no way of knowing that I'd have someone like you in my life..."  
  
Carole felt her heart pause before carrying on, and properly wrapped her arm around Tuesday.  
  
" Well, Tues, I'm glad we found each other."  
  
" Same here... Actually... Carole... Finding you, it... Gave me hope. It was a brand new dawn for me and you."  
  
" And all because of the day you decided to spread your wings and fly away from the nest."  
  
" Ahah... You don't have to put it that way!"  
  
" Isn't it something people say?"  
  
" Yeah, but they sound like awkward song lyrics."  
  
" Song lyrics, huh?" Carole noticed that Tuesday had taken her left hand in her right, intertwining their fingers, feeling the brush of her long fingernails across the back of her hand.   
  
" You had short fingernails on your left hand... And you've got long nails on your right."  
  
Tuesday giggled at the remark.  
  
" You're pretty observant right now, huh, Carole?" She smiled lovingly at her and sighed.  
  
" I miss manicures... But they're such a pain when they're so pretty, then chip off immediately. I need the left side with short nails because they get all stuck in the strings if they're too long..."  
  
" Nails get stuck on guitar strings?"  
  
" Under. And yes, it's a thing. I swear! But also, for the right hand, I need longer nails."  
  
" Huh? And why's that? No getting stuck in strings?"  
  
" Hahah.. no... They're for when I'm practicing and can't find a pick, so, the nails are used for strumming. But it's a preference, really.... I think some people just prefer it short on both sides."  
  
" ...pretty..."  
  
" Huh?" Tuesday thought she had misheard Carole say that, and felt her face flush, glowing red.  
  
" I said, your hands are really pretty, Tuesday. They really express who you are as an artist. You know."  
  
" You think so?"  
  
Tuesday's grip on Carole's hand tightened. As she looked down at Tuesday, she felt the softness of her fluffy, wavy hair against her dark caramel skin was ticklish, so she swung all of Tuesday's hair onto her right shoulder. Carole then combed her long slender fingers into the head of dark blonde locks, turning her head towards her.  
  
" Tuesday, not just your hands, but... All of you is beautiful."  
  
Before she knew it, Tuesday had pressed her lips against hers, wrapping both arms around Carole's neck, locking her into this embrace. She kissed back, feeling all of Tuesday's warmth in her envelopment, accepting all the affection that was to come from her friend, and possibly, newfound lover.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first Carole X Tuesday fic! Hope you enjoyed it!


End file.
